SPRINGFIELD — A decade after she helped turn around a struggling Pioneer Valley Transit Authority reeling from financial mismanagement, Mary MacInnes is set to retire this spring as administrator of the largest regional transportation authority in the state.
On Tuesday, MacInnes informed Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz, who serves as PVTA’s Advisory Board chairman, of her decision to leave the agency April 28, providing the 90 days notice outlined in her contract.
“I selected that date because the milestones that I wanted accomplished will be achieved by the end of April,” MacInnes wrote in her letter.
Under her leadership, the PVTA is a thriving entity that over the years has expanded bus routes, improved van service for disabled individuals and senior citizens and corrected financial mismanagement that plagued the agency early in her tenure.
The PVTA has an operating budget of $47.3 million and a fleet of 186 buses, 132 vans and 24 participating member communities. In 2016, more than 12 million riders were transported by its vehicles, MacInnes said, or about 39 percent of all riders on the 15 regional transit authorities statewide.
MacInnes, 65, said in a phone interview Friday that she has appreciated the support from area residents who depend on the service and local and state leaders who understand the needs of the agency.
“Even though the headquarters for PVTA is in Springfield, we’ve had a very close connection to our northern communities over the past decade,” MacInnes said.
MacInnes said Senate President Stanley Rosenberg and retired U.S. Rep. John Olver, who both live in Amherst, have helped to get PVTA its necessary state and federal funding. In addition to Narkewicz, leaders of the advisory board have included former Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins and late Amherst Town Manager John Musante.
Among the initiatives MacInnes has pursued are expanded routes in Northampton and Amherst, putting hybrid-electric buses and electric buses on the road, and a pilot program in which a van will be provided to the Northampton Senior Center.
PVTA also has been a leader in technology, with automatic stop announcements added on buses and real-time signs being installed at stops, she said.
MacInnes said PVTA has aimed to be responsive to customers.
“We try very hard to get input from our riders,” MacInnes said, adding that operations staff will often go to major traffic points to make direct observations.
Narkewicz said that under MacInnes, the fleet has improved, routes have been modernized and efficiencies introduced. In addition, construction of a new operations maintenance facility in Springfield is beginning in April, and the move of its Springfield Area Transit Co. operations and customer service staff to Union Station is expected to occur the same month.
“I’m happy for her retirement, but I think it’s going to be a big loss for PVTA,” Narkewicz said. “She’s done a great job as an administrator and she’s been able to advance many projects.”
Others who serve on the advisory board, representing the two dozen cities and towns in Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden counties where service is provided, praised MacInnes for her service.
“Mary has used her experience and expertise to make the PVTA the exemplar of how a regional transit authority should be led and run,” Amherst Select Board member Douglas Slaughter said in an email. “Her diligence, hard work, leadership and political savvy have all been critical to the continued success of the organization and have laid the foundation, both literally, through several significant capital projects, and figuratively, for the future success of the PVTA.”
“It was a pleasure working with Mary over the years,” said Melissa Zawadzki, Easthampton’s finance director. “I wish her all the best in her retirement.”
MacInnes, who is paid around $130,000 a year, arrived at a time when PVTA was facing major financial problems, including an audit that showed it suffered from mismanagement and shoddy bookkeeping that led to misusing $4.2 million in federal funds and $1 million in state funds. The audit also found that the company hired to handle van service at the time was unable to meet the demand and had to be terminated.
In February 2006, former administrator Gary A. Shepard was put on paid administrative leave as part of a federal probe into the handling of contracts and bids at the agency, highlighted by an FBI raid on the agency’s downtown Springfield headquarters and a series of audits citing problems with the agency’s money management and procurement practices. In 2012, Shepard received a $50,000 settlement for a wrongful termination.
A former chief financial officer was fired, along with the agency’s former general counsel, Kevin Walkowski, who, like Shepard, also filed a wrongful termination lawsuit. Walkowski reached a settlement with the PVTA in 2009 that paid him $175,000.
MacInnes brought in an auditor to examine the agency’s books. The auditor found $10 million in accounting errors that needed to be corrected, such as a $6.2 million parcel of land listed as a net asset even though it had never been purchased by the PVTA.
MacInnes said she conducted a total reorganization of PVTA, bringing in people who we experienced and dedicated to the agency.
“A strong team is left in place who’ve earned the respect of funding sources,” MacInnes said Friday.
Narkewicz said he is pleased that problems of a decade ago have been fixed. “She’s righted that and she’s leaving the agency in much better shape than she found it,” he said.
The advisory board, which hires and supervises the administrator, will work with PVTA’s human resources department to begin the search for a successor. Narkewicz said a small screening committee will recruit, interview candidates and present finalists to the full board.
Prior to coming to PVTA, MacInnes was the administrator of the Worcester Regional Transit Authority, and before that she worked at Smart Route Systems Inc. in Cambridge, a real-time traffic and information service. She also worked at the Massachusetts Port Authority, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, and MBTA in Boston.
In retirement, MacInnes said she intends to stay involved in transit matters, including assisting the city of Boston with challenges related to the MBTA.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
